Ryerson exposed on boob tube

If you looked fast enough, you may have noticed Ryerson advertising on TV over the holidays.

For those glued to their sets, Ryerson bought some quickie TV ad space to promote continuing education courses.

The 10-second ad aired 35 times on CBLT (CABLE 6) between Dec. 22 and Jan. 4, promoting enrolment in CE courses that start this week.

This is the first time in Ryerson’s history the school has taken the broadcast route to advertise.

“The reason we advertised on TV was mainly because of the postal strike,” said Amy Casey, CE associate director of administration.

“The promotion on TV helped us get our message out fast. We wanted to let people know there was still time to register for the winter term courses.”

The ad – a pan shot of people and a Ryerson sign at Gould and Victoria Streets – Encouraged viewers to “make lifelong learning a part of your life” and informed them of a registration hotline starting Jan. 5.

Enrolment in CE courses dropped this fall by five per cent or 500 registrations, but the drop wasn’t the reason for the commercial, Casey said.

She said the course calendar is the most important advertising tool for CE. Each year 160,000 calendars are mailed, but during the postal strike in November and December – one of the busiest times of the academic year – delivery of the calendar was delayed.

“So this time, the TV ads were a good opportunity to quickly fill the hole in advertising. But we were also able to buy the ad and the production cost at a low price.”

The total cost of the ad was $3,744, said Jean Burrows, communications officer with the Office of University Advancement.